Description

When out hunting, the formidable raja of Ujjain captured a fantastic animal and brought it back to his court. It is described as being so soft that the fur of his body “made the back of the sable seem as hard as stone and the smoothness of whose coat made the fur of the ermine feel like the anvil of a blacksmith.”

In devising this wondrous creature’s appearance, the artist gave him cloven hoofs, a beak, and horns, as though inspired by European images of griffins, but with soft-looking fur.